Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Oh, just hurry up and give him the Order of Canada and get it over with!

The Ottawa Citizen is making a meal of Robert Latimer's release from prison and arrival in Ottawa. We've been treated to stories about him every day since Saturday, and no end in sight. This reminds me of last year's Maher Arararama - they all but created a separate section of the newspaper to hymn the praises of Maher Arar, whose distinction was to be refused entry to the U.S., and obliged to sojourn among his Muslim brethren, who treated him like shit.

Now we've got the endless Latimer sob-story going on in our midst, with the usual letters to the editor complaining about what a hard-hearted society we are, because he was convicted and sent to jail for killing his handicapped daughter.

Latimer himself strikes me as a Canadian version of Cindy Sheehan - dim as a post, and impelled by vague emotions which he fluthers out in public. He's not even campaigning on behalf of euthanasia or a "right to die" law, which would at least give some meaning to his media coverage.

After serving seven years in prison, he said his sole focus is to clear his name. His main hope is that Justice Minister Rob Nicholson will order a new jury trial. "It's the only thing that can set me free. No judge would ever have done it."

Hello? Latimer? YOU DID THE DEED. No one snuck into your house and killed your daughter; you were convicted because killing someone is a crime, and you did it. Your name is as "clear" as it's ever going to be. What you want is to collect a jury that will lie in your favour.

"Obviously a jury should be able to consider whether what I did was right or wrong," he said. "And I've never had a jury like that.

"Obviously", you are an idiot. A jury's job is to consider the facts, and decide what happened. They're like scientists in that way. If there's a law against something, all the deciding over whether something is right or wrong has been done already - it's wrong. If you want to explore the matter further, the place to go is called "a church". And judging by the answer you're hunting for, I recommend you avoid the Catholics. Try the Anglicans.

It sounds to me like he wants jury nullification just for him - like the O.J. trial. He says he's not trying to get the law changed, he's fine with it; it's just that HE shouldn't be punished by it. I'd say he's a hypocrite, too, but he just really strikes me as a rather stupid, self-centered man who doesn't even realize his own incoherence.

I showed this post to the Canuck, who wholeheartedly agreed with you (and he tends Liberal, so he doesn't often agree wholeheartedly with you!). He said he's been "fed up with Latimer" since the case first hit the media. (And he agreed that Latimer seems to be rather dim...)

His neighbours had best turn down their sound systems. He might decide they are handicapped by way of being deaf (seeing as they need to play their music so loudly) and "do the right thing" to put them out of their misery.

The only other Latimer I know anything about was burned at the stake. Just sayin'

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About Me

I'm a married lady with 3 kids, all at different spots on the autism spectrum. In my spare time I translate and create English subtitles for obscure French movies. I also bake, garden and build computers.